Manage your subscription

The price of preserving fossils for the future

IT’S a decision few would envy&colon; what to do with a patch of land contested by palaeontologists, gas companies and indigenous peoples? All three groups claim that James Price Point in Western Australia is invaluable&colon; for its fossil record, its proximity to offshore gas and its place in their beliefs, respectively (see “Lost world of dinosaurs threatened by gas industry“).

The gas companies are winning the argument so far&colon; it would be costly to relocate, and they have pledged to avoid known fossils. But the scientifically minded may sympathise more naturally with the dinosaur-hunters. As this week’s Instant Expert explains, our ability to decipher fossils is still evolving. A fossil lost today is thus knowledge lost tomorrow.

Fossils endure for millions of years, but can be erased in a geological instant – along with their unique record of the past. What price can you put on that?